Austrian Beef Cattle Breeders Association

Performance recording

Field test

The beef performance testing is carried out as a field test.
Weight at birth is recorded by the breeder. Ease of calving is scaled from 1 (without any help) to 5 (embryotomy). The weights at 200 days (from the age of 90 to 280 days) and 365 days (from the age of 281 to 500 days) are taken by an employee of the recording organisation and the daily gain is calculated.

Productive traits like calving interval, age at first calving, average age of the cows, calving ease and the percentage of dead calves are analyzed annually.

The recording is performed by the Landeskontrollverband, an ICAR approved organisation in accordance with the breeding associations.

These data are published in an annual report.

Breeding values

For Angus, Blonde d’Aquitaine, Charolais, Fleckvieh-Simmental and the conservation breeds breeding values based on the above mentioned field test are estimated for the first time in 2018. The total merit index consists of following single traits: